184 Mr. Howard Saunders on 



the ledges clean, had carried off eggs and young indiscriminately. 

 The result was, young Griffons disputing the offal with the dogs 

 at every turning. But the news was not good. It had been a 

 very bad year for Vultures generally (they were away in Morocco 

 feeding on the Moors and Riffites ; and not a single Vultur 

 cinereus had an egg that my men knew of. We went off to see 

 the nest of Bonelli's Eagle, which was in a " stack " of moun- 

 tains about fifteen hundred feet high, and situated some two 

 hundred feet from the lowest point to which we could descend. 

 We saw both birds, one carrying a Partridge in its claws — which 

 looked as if they had young. Next day I sent two men round 

 to the top with ropes, while I with Gabriel, brother of my man 

 Juan, a first-rate cragsman, climbed, with great difficulty, and 

 passing the gun from hand to hand, to within shot of the nest — 

 without exception the very worst piece of cragging I ever did. 

 The male bird came sailing by, a longish shot ; but I did not 

 fire, imagining the female to be on the nest, which we were then 

 approaching. It turned out, however, that she had been off 

 when the men got to the top, and on seeing them, as she came 

 back with another Partridge, had wheeled off without showing 

 any concern, or betraying any consciousness of having a nest. 

 The male behaved exactly in the same way. It took us some 

 time to get round to the top of the rock, and then to arrange the 

 ropes, at which my fellows, who were first-rate men wherever 

 they could go without a rope, bungled so much that I went down 

 myself. On getting to the level of the nest I found it contained 

 two nearly fledged Eaglets ; but the cliff overhung so much that 

 I had to ascend to get a stick to push myself off, and so swing 

 in, before I could reach them. The young cowered down in the 

 nest ; and even when I tied them up with my braces, they scarcely 

 uttered a sound. This done, I groped about in the nest, which was 

 full of feathers, and found an egg, evidently laid by some bird 

 which had been brought there alive. I do not mean to say that 

 it is a Fraucoliu^s egg, as that bird is not found in Spain to my 

 knowledge ; but it is uncommonly like one, being deeply granu- 

 lated and of the colour of that of our Perdix cinerea, which is 

 as rare in Southern Spain as the Francoliu. Securing this egg, 

 I mounted with my freight, which I am happy to say I brought 



